Re: Has GNOME-Journal Died?

[Jayson Rowe <jayson rowe gmail com>]

Absolutely - I'm 100% committed to help make this happen!

I just need to get some direction to get started - contacts to get info 
from, etc.

I'm not drowning in free time, but I can easily devote a couple of hours 
in the weekday evenings, and usually much more on weekends (naturally).

I'll spend the next little bit looking around (more carefully) the Wiki 
pages that are out there, and see what can be done (I maintain a couple 
of different wiki's at my work), and also hopefully Lucas can get in 
touch with me to get the ball rolling.

As for articles, perhaps someone who is active on the Planet could post 
an advertisement of sorts to see if there are any folks out there who 
either have something already in mind to write about, or perhaps we 
could set up a core group of writers and have folks throughout the GNOME 
community submit stories to those writers. Also, since you mention a lot 
of folks already use their own blogs, and the Planet, we could scan 
those for interesting topics, then contact the original Author (perhaps 
getting them involved) and do a more elaborate, press ready copy done 
for the journal (i.e. send it through the proofing process, etc.)?

My initial thought is, perhaps since the Journal has stagnated a bit, 
there might be some new community members who do not know it's even 
there, and we can spark some new interest in it.

I myself am going to freshen up on "The Elements of Style" and see what 
I can learn about 'Textile'.

Just some thoughts.


Claus Schwarm wrote:
> Hi, Jayson!
>
> Thanks for volunteering, I'd say!
>
> To get the GNOME Journal going, the most needed person is the
> release manager: Somebody who sets up a schedule, asks people for
> articles, organizes proof-reading, uploads the articles, advertises the
> edition and deals with the technical stuff.
>
> I used to do this, then Lucas did it. Not sure who followed. I might be
> seriously mistaken -- Apologies in advance! -- , but I believe the
> position is open for a new volunteer!
>
> If you'd like to do this, there are quite a lot of things to do:
>
>   * As you already noted: cleaning the Wiki pages is needed.
>
>   * We need a new technical base, since our current system is
> out-of-date. It's a pain to use, and our database used to crash
> every now and then, especially shortly before or right after a
> release. Lucas started a transition to another system -- WordPress, I
> believe -- but it wasn't finished. Maybe I just missed the announcement.
>
>   * Setting up a new schedule should be easy, since it's in the wiki.
> Sri also set up a Google calender but I'm not sure whether anybody
> watches it.
>
>   * The major problem: Getting articles!
>
>    (1) There's no such a thing as a community channel for GNOME. The
> closest thing are the mailing lists. These are hard to watch and
> it's even harder to get somebody to write about interesting things.
>
>    (2) Many potential writers use their blogs and the Planet: It's
> easier for them to use what they know, there's not need to discuss
> issues with editors, and they get instant publishing.
>
>     However, there might be some older articles from the last
> unpublished edition to get started. Check the mailing list archive.
>
>   * The last time, proof-reading worked well and fast, but it needs to
> be organized: Who reads an article, etc.
>
>   * For the rest, there should be a tutorial in the Wiki for promoting
> a new edition. But it's probably a little bit out-of-date.
>
>   * There's also some administration work to do: Watching over the
> mailing list so there's no spam, dealing with the system admin group,
> stuff like that.
>
> I'm sure, Lucas and others can comment some more.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Claus
>
>
> On Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:06:10 -0400
> Jayson Rowe <jayson rowe gmail com> wrote:
>
> > So, what's going on? It's been 9 months or so since a new article was 
> > posted. I am willing to help - I'd hate to see this die away, and I 
> > would love to see it far more active (as it once was). I used to love
> > to read the "Behind the Scenes" series, and I would love to see this 
> > revived, and be far more extensive and popular than KDE's "Behind
> > KDE" page.
> >
> > What can I do to help? I'm willing to do anything. I'm 100% about 
> > promoting GNOME, as well as giving insights into the GNOME developers 
> > and contributers, delivering GNOME News to the community as well as 
> > showing off coming GNOME Projects and applications.
> >
> > I would love to see GNOME Journal be a "go-to" place for folks to
> > come and read about GNOME, but too me, it seems it's just dying away,
> > slowly but surely. I know everything is done by volunteers, and that
> > we all have real-life, but I'm willing to give up some of my free
> > time to make this happen.
> >
> > I've volunteered to help several times in the past but I haven't ever 
> > gotten any real direction on where to go, or what to do.
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Jayson
> > _______________________________________________
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